Rodeo contests have become popular in recent years, particularly in the western states of the United States, and many cowboys and other western riders have become highly skilled in the performance of certain cattle handling feats, such as bulldogging, steer-roping, and calf-roping. The riders exhibit their skills in performing these feats when they actively compete with each other for prize money before large audiences during rodeo performances.
Ideally, the execution of these events requires that a steer or a calf be brought into a suitable enclosure having a gate which can be readily opened and closed for the entrance and retention of the animal; that the steer or calf be safely confined within the enclosure and restrained therein without danger of injury for a short period during which the cowboy or cowboys and their horses are taking their appropriate places and are making ready for the impending event, and that, finally, the steer or calf be suddenely released, without danger of injury, into the rodeo arena where the feat of bulldogging, steer-roping, or calf-roping, as the case may be, is to be performed.